Nobel peace prize winner to be announced

The winner of the 2004 Nobel peace prize, whose recipients gain worldwide fame and a £700,000 cash award, will be named in Oslo tomorrow.

The prize-giving committee has reviewed a record 194 nominees and, in keeping with Nobel tradition, the names of the nominees have not been released.

However, reports suggesting hotly-tipped contenders include Mohamed ElBaradei, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Hans Blix, the former UN chief weapons inspector, have leaked out.

The prize - which was created by Alfred Nobel, the Swede who invented dynamite, and was first awarded in 1901 - is often used to promote the efforts of campaigners for peace, human rights or democracy, or to condemn the actions of corrupt or oppressive governments.

In 2002, peace prize committee member Gunnar Berge said the award of the prize to the former US president Jimmy Carter should "be interpreted as a criticism" of the Bush administration's move to invade Iraq.

Many recent awards have honoured peace efforts that have gone on to founder. The Middle East peace process, which was honoured in 1994, lies in tatters, and Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, remains in exile 15 years after his award.

Guatemala's Rigoberta Menchu, who won the prize in 1992, has disappeared from the public eye following allegations of inaccuracy in the autobiography that helped garner the prize.

However, Mr Carter said the prize could make a difference, telling the Associated Press: "The Nobel peace prize was very helpful to me personally, and to the Carter Centre and its humanitarian projects in many nations around the world.

"Most of our work is among the poorest, most neglected, and needy people in about 65 nations, and had received very little public attention. The prize brought much-needed recognition."

Geir Lundestad, the non-voting secretary of the awards committee, said: "It's not a magic wand that creates peace. It's a loudspeaker and microphone for the laureates, especially those who are lesser known. It's a door opener."

He cited examples of the prize's impact in East Timor - in 1996, the prize went to East Timor independence and democracy activists Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta - and South Africa.

"The East Timor people give us credit for their independence. Maybe too much credit," Mr Lundestad said. "Ramos-Horta told me that no one [in foreign governments] would even see them before the prize. He said he was sleeping in railroad stations because they had no money. After the prize, they got in anywhere."